Why the CEO of Hootsuite says having a mentor isn't the key to a successful career

Many professionals credit their successes to someone else — a
boss, a partner, or more commonly, a mentor.

And while yes, inspiration and guidance can be incredible
motivators in one's career, mentors are not necessarily key.

In a recent LinkedIn
post, Ryan Holmes, the CEO of Hootsuite, explains that amidst
his success launching the comprehensive social media management
app, he never found a mentor — and it never set him
back or slowed him down. (In fact, he claims the search caused
him a bit of unnecessary stress.)

"When I was a business major in college, everyone talked about
how critical is was to find a good mentor, " he writes. "In the
end, I found it almost stressful when I didn't end up finding
one. I asked myself back then: Was I missing a important piece of
the puzzle to my future success?"

When posed with the
question of who inspired him in his career, Holmes
instead chose to address the concept of self-motivation. He
discussed the career of Markus Frind, PlentyofFish founder and
CEO, who just sold
his company for a cool $575 million — despite having "no
investors, few friends in the industry and, as far as I
know, zero mentors."

"Much like Frind, I've never had a single 'Mr. Miyagi-type'
mentor to guide me," Holmes writes.

And he says that while career mentorship can be extremely
beneficial (and definitely not something to shy away from),
professionals shouldn't feel incomplete without someone to look
up to, or turn to at the first sign of trouble.

If you don't have someone in your life who has inspired your
every career move, don't feel disadvantaged. It just signifies
you have the ability to self-start — and, ultimately, draw
inspiration from a variety of people and outlets.

"We must be able to take in the variety of different ideas,
opinions, and experiences we come across through our work and
consolidate it all into our own valuable truths," Holmes writes
in the LinkedIn post.

"My real point here is that the idea that we each need a single
career guru to swoop in and solve all of our most important
problems is a one-size-fits-all approach," he explains. "If you
haven't found that perfect mentor, it's not necessarily a sign
that you're on the wrong track or that your vision is doomed to
fail ... It could just be that you don't need one, after all."